Bowyer, Fort, attack it upon.
At the entrance to
Mobile Bay, 30 miles from the village of
Mobile, was
Fort Bowyer (afterwards
Fort Morgan), occupying the extremity of a narrow cape on the eastern side of the entrance, and commanding the channel between it and
Fort Dauphin opposite.
It was a small work, in semicircular form towards the channel, without bomb-proofs, and mounting only twenty guns, nearly all of them 12-pounders.
It was the chief defence of
Mobile; and in it
Jackson, on his return from
Pensacola, placed
Maj. William Lawrence and 130 men. On Sept. 12, 1814, a British squadron appeared off
Mobile Point with land troops, and very soon
Lieutenant-Colonel Nichols appeared in rear of the fort with a few marines and 600
Indians.
The squadron consisted of the
Hermes, twenty-two guns;
Sophia, eighteen;
Caron, twenty; and
Anaconda, eighteen--the whole under
Captain Percy, the commander of a squadron of nine vessels which
Jackson drove from
Pensacola Bay.
By a skilful use of his cannon,
Lawrence dispersed parties who tried to cast up intrenchments and sound the channel.
Early in the afternoon of the 15th the
British began an attack on land and water.
The garrison adopted as the signal for the day “Don't give up the fort.”
A fierce and general battle ensued, and continued until half-past 5 o'clock, when the flag of the
Hermes was shot away.
Lawrence ceased firing to ascertain whether she had surrendered.
This humane act was answered by a broadside from another vessel.
A raking fire soon the disabled the
Hermes.
At length the flagstaff of the fort was shot away, when the ships redoubled their tire.
Supposing the fort had surrendered, the
British leader on land assailed it with his
Indians.
He was soon undeceived.
They were driven back by a terrible storm of grape-shot, and fled in terror.
The battered ships withdrew, all but the
Hermes.
She was set on fire by her friends, and at midnight her magazine exploded.
The
British, who had brought to bear upon
Fort Bowyer ninety-two pieces of artillery, and arrayed over 1,300 men against a garrison of 130, were repulsed with a loss of 232 men, of whom 162 were killed.
The loss of the
Americans was four men killed and four wounded. See
Mobile, Ala.;
forts Morgan and Gaines. 
